Canning applesauce

Time to make the applesauce.  The kids were so excited.

I cut up all the apples, leaving the skin on for added flavor and nutrition.  The cores were placed in a bag to save for the chickens.

Into the pot with an inch of water.

All soft and yummy.

Through the strainer to get the right consistency.

Then 20 minutes in the water bath and we have sauce!  The kids love it, so I need to use up the rest of the apples tomorrow.

Thinking about Thanksgiving

 This sounds great!  I just found this nifty little site.  My family has always had a relatively local Thanksgiving, even before we really understood the whole locavore movement.

My Mom has always gotten her turkeys from a local turkey farm called Bongi's.  We love the taste of the fresh, local turkeys.   They are so different from the plastic encased, frozen birds. 

Then there are the sides.  My family has always had a garden if at all possible.  I've now got one as well.  So, between us, we have lots of veggies at our disposal.  The butternut squash is a must have, along with the pumpkin pie from our own pumpkins.  We also have goodies that were frozen during the summer, like broccoli, green beans and peas.  Apples are abundant here in New England, so pies and cider are a yummy addition.

It seems that the biggest thing that is not local are the grains.  We buy all of our flour from King Arthur Flour.  The company is relatively local, being in Vermont, although I don't know where they get their grains from for the flour.  I'm told that there will be a grain CSA starting up in the Western part of MA, so that should be very exciting.

Interestingly, I've never thought about this before.  I'm relatively new to the locavore and green movements.  It is neat though, that we were doing it right anyway.  The only thing we need to find local now is the little boiling onions for creamed onions.  Those are a must have at our Thanksgiving meal.  What will you be having for Thanksgiving?

Apple Picking

I love apple picking.  We were late going this year, but thankfully there were still plenty left.  I packed the kids and the wagon into my car and off we went to Honey Pot Hill.  Its a great orchard about an hours drive from me.

The only problem was that most of the apples were too far up for us to reach.  Here is Noah trying to find apples low enough to pick.

Any that Morgan found were instantly eaten.

These were out of reach, taunting me.  I am scared of ladders and didn't have my 6'4" hubby to get them for me.

Every tree had hundreds of apples on the ground under it.  So much waste made me very sad.  It was impossible to walk without making applesauce as you went.

The wagon was very useful, since we ended up with a bushel of apples.  The kids are excited to make applesauce from them.

It really was a perfect day.

Over at the farm store, they had pumpkins for sale as well.  They look so nice all lined up.  When the kids were little we would have them sit on the pumpkins for pictures.

I loved the rows of future trees.  This orchard is truly massive.  We have been going there for years, but ended up in an area that I didn't even know existed.  Tomorrow I'll post pics of the animals they have.

Autumn Fire

Each season brings its own personality.  Its as if they are trying to outdo each other.  The red of autumn is no exception.

Mums

 

Japanese Maple

 

Dogwood

 

Burning Bushes lit ablaze.

See who else is strolling over at the Quiet Country House.  

Leaves and chickens

Leaves are everywhere these days.  As I said before, I get lots of them from my neighbor's yard. 

These will provide a wonderful mulch for my garlic cloves and will be reduced to practically nothing by spring.  In the meantime, they'll feed and protect the garlic.  As you can see, I still need to clean up the weeds along the edges of the garden, so that next spring I can plant the peas as early as possible.

The chickens are almost finished doing their thing in the garden.  We still don't have eggs yet, but I'm ever hopeful when I go out to check on them.  

Garlic planting

Today was the day to plant the garlic.  The beds are getting filled this week and the first one I did was the garlic bed.  The kids have been helping with the bed closest to the piles of soil.  They're awfully cute with their little shovels.  I started by seperating the cloves.

I had 2 different varieties that I got from wegrowgarlic.com.  They  are a couple that started a garlic growing business in Wisconsin.  Since they are in a cold growing area like I am, they are a good choice.  I can't order garlic from a warm weather source, as it won't do well in my New England winters.  This first year I used grocery store garlic.  I've heard that many times it is grown in warmer climates.  Although I certainly got garlic, the heads were quite small. 

Once the garlic is separated, I choose the largest cloves for planting.  With the 2 varieties I planted this year, they were all huge cloves.  Out of 10 heads of garlic I got only 1 small clove for eating, the rest were planted.  In all I planted about 60 cloves of garlic, which will give me a good amount for next year and some to plant again next fall.  I'm not really sure yet how much we go through in a year, so we'll have to see if that will be enough.  We're pretty heavy garlic users.

This is the bed after planting.  I planted Music at the end closest to the shed and German Porcelain closest to the house.  This will be topped with mulch in the next day or so.  My favorite mulch is chopped leaves and grass.  I put the bag on the lawnmower and mow up some grass and leaves, then put a 4-6 inch layer on top of the bed.  This composts down very nicely over the winter to feed the bulbs and protect them at the same time.  My neighbor loves it, because I come and mow up her backyard leaves.  She has a lot more leaves than I do, so it makes us both happy.  

Even the poison ivy is beautiful

I love fall.  The colors are amazing and the cool crisp air, refreshing.

I love the look of the leaves decorating the grass.

New blueberry bushes finishing up their first year in a new home.

The poison ivy even seems pretty.

I'm not very good at identifying things yet, but these berries are beautiful.

The kids hideout tucked in behind the trees.

Nature covering up a mess.

Dogwoods setting fruit.